Jesse’s Reviews > The Incredible Shrinking Man > Status Update
Jesse
is on page 350 of 352
“Shoofly”
An executive is being stood up for a meeting and is distracted, annoyed, and then enraged by the presence of a fly, completely wrecking his office in an attempt to kill it, and putting his own health at risk.
I like Matheson’s prose but it’s so exhausting to experience this parade of comically enraged men. There isn’t a thing that happens where they aren’t ready to pull their own head off.
— Mar 18, 2026 02:49PM
An executive is being stood up for a meeting and is distracted, annoyed, and then enraged by the presence of a fly, completely wrecking his office in an attempt to kill it, and putting his own health at risk.
I like Matheson’s prose but it’s so exhausting to experience this parade of comically enraged men. There isn’t a thing that happens where they aren’t ready to pull their own head off.
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Jesse’s Previous Updates
Jesse
is on page 337 of 352
“Duel”
Mann is a traveling salesman who passes a big stinky truck on the highway in the California hills. Said big stinky truck initiates a lethal conflict, fueled by road rage, that drives both vehicles to their limits. Vehicular antagonism still is a pretty widespread phenomenon. A cell phone could maybe change the tone of the story but given the isolated road it happens on, maybe not so much.
— Mar 18, 2026 02:01PM
Mann is a traveling salesman who passes a big stinky truck on the highway in the California hills. Said big stinky truck initiates a lethal conflict, fueled by road rage, that drives both vehicles to their limits. Vehicular antagonism still is a pretty widespread phenomenon. A cell phone could maybe change the tone of the story but given the isolated road it happens on, maybe not so much.
Jesse
is on page 311 of 352
“Button, Button”
A couple gets a mysterious box followed by a mysterious proposal. Press the button and someone you don’t know dies, and you receive 50,000 dollars. Arthur, the husband, is very principled and refuses to consider the offer. Norma, the wife, slowly rationalizes taking it up. Not just for herself, you see, but for the joy the money will bring to their marriage.
— Mar 18, 2026 12:15PM
A couple gets a mysterious box followed by a mysterious proposal. Press the button and someone you don’t know dies, and you receive 50,000 dollars. Arthur, the husband, is very principled and refuses to consider the offer. Norma, the wife, slowly rationalizes taking it up. Not just for herself, you see, but for the joy the money will bring to their marriage.
Jesse
is on page 301 of 352
“By Appointment Only”
Speaking of Needful Things, the customer in this story’s last name is Pangborn! This is a classic twist-paced story where a husband and wife, barber and manicurist, keep a business by appointment only. As it turns out, the wife is practicing voodoo—it’s revealed toward the end that she’s Haitian—and they are running a scam with what I assume is a chiropractor.
— Mar 18, 2026 06:51AM
Speaking of Needful Things, the customer in this story’s last name is Pangborn! This is a classic twist-paced story where a husband and wife, barber and manicurist, keep a business by appointment only. As it turns out, the wife is practicing voodoo—it’s revealed toward the end that she’s Haitian—and they are running a scam with what I assume is a chiropractor.
Jesse
is on page 293 of 352
“The Distributor”
Imagine Needful Things except it’s one normal but heartless man working alone in order to destabilize a basically happy suburban neighborhood and with none of the levity of the human struggle against evil. Some of Theodore’s tactics include blackmail, race-baiting, murdering pets, and straight up misinformation, as well as crank calls that dial up the stress of the targets.
— Mar 18, 2026 05:29AM
Imagine Needful Things except it’s one normal but heartless man working alone in order to destabilize a basically happy suburban neighborhood and with none of the levity of the human struggle against evil. Some of Theodore’s tactics include blackmail, race-baiting, murdering pets, and straight up misinformation, as well as crank calls that dial up the stress of the targets.
Jesse
is on page 277 of 352
“Mantage”
Owen Crowley speculates with his fiancée that movies gloss over a lot of important things in life. Then, well, he wishes that he could skip the ten years it took to be a successful writer. From that point on, Owen’s life becomes a movie; he exists within the montage, cannonballing through life’s major moments until the inevitable end.
— Mar 17, 2026 04:28PM
Owen Crowley speculates with his fiancée that movies gloss over a lot of important things in life. Then, well, he wishes that he could skip the ten years it took to be a successful writer. From that point on, Owen’s life becomes a movie; he exists within the montage, cannonballing through life’s major moments until the inevitable end.
Jesse
is on page 255 of 352
“The Holiday Man”
David has a job that he doesn’t like. On his day, he goes up to his office and then takes the psychic blowback of every death that occurs over the day, experiencing each one of them and then documenting them so that they have accurate death statistics. David’s time is, unfortunately, the holidays, which I assume is why he logs so many traffic accidents on July 4th.
— Mar 17, 2026 04:06PM
David has a job that he doesn’t like. On his day, he goes up to his office and then takes the psychic blowback of every death that occurs over the day, experiencing each one of them and then documenting them so that they have accurate death statistics. David’s time is, unfortunately, the holidays, which I assume is why he logs so many traffic accidents on July 4th.
Jesse
is on page 245 of 352
“The Test”
In the future, they passed a law where the elderly have to take aptitude tests every five years. If you don’t pass, then the government gives you a grace window before lethal injection. Les is trying to help his 80 year old father study for the test, but his wife wants to be done with supporting the old man, as it’s a strain on their resources.
— Mar 17, 2026 03:52PM
In the future, they passed a law where the elderly have to take aptitude tests every five years. If you don’t pass, then the government gives you a grace window before lethal injection. Les is trying to help his 80 year old father study for the test, but his wife wants to be done with supporting the old man, as it’s a strain on their resources.
Jesse
is on page 227 of 352
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”
John Lithgow in The Twilight Zone movie is seared into my brain for this one. Matheson has his fun, here. Whether the gremlin is real or not is up for argument. Either way, Wilson is cracking up and has brought a gun onto an airplane, ostensibly for protection but with a secret purpose: suicide. Metaphorically, the ensuing conflict is against his self-sabotage.
— Mar 17, 2026 02:42PM
John Lithgow in The Twilight Zone movie is seared into my brain for this one. Matheson has his fun, here. Whether the gremlin is real or not is up for argument. Either way, Wilson is cracking up and has brought a gun onto an airplane, ostensibly for protection but with a secret purpose: suicide. Metaphorically, the ensuing conflict is against his self-sabotage.
Jesse
is on page 207 of 352
“The Incredible Shrinking Man”
A pretty good action-adventure-horror. Scott is kind of a miserable character but he turns the corner toward the end, finally doing what he should have done. This character turn happens in flashbacks at the same time that he decides to fight the spider, which is a great way to pace the story. The ending is kind of a cop-out, but not a “everything is back to normal!” one.
— Mar 17, 2026 02:06PM
A pretty good action-adventure-horror. Scott is kind of a miserable character but he turns the corner toward the end, finally doing what he should have done. This character turn happens in flashbacks at the same time that he decides to fight the spider, which is a great way to pace the story. The ending is kind of a cop-out, but not a “everything is back to normal!” one.
Jesse
is on page 150 of 352
Carey isn’t a likable character; he damns himself to sate his ego in the short term time and time again. These fifty pages include a long segment where he, 21 inches tall, lusts after his daughter’s babysitter while he’s locked in the cellar to keep her from discovering the secret that, really, horrifies himself, because the only thing that really matters to Scott is Scott.
— Mar 17, 2026 12:26PM
